WARRINGTON North's MP has called on the town to declare itself an 'anti-fracking borough'.

Following the decision of Lancashire County Council (LCC) to refuse two planning applications at sites where energy firm Cuadrilla wanted to extract shale gas, Helen Jones wants Warrington to implement a tough stance.

The MP believes fracking has the potential to 'wreck many villages and suburbs'.

She added: "I voted in Parliament for a moratorium on fracking because I do not believe the case for the procedure has been adequately made.

"Our communities will be adversely affected by an untried technology which does not have sufficient safeguards.

"David Cameron is already trying to bribe councils with his proposal to grant councils 100 per cent of the business rates they would get from fracking.

"A Tory peer has already suggested fracking should take place in the 'derelict' north because proposals in the south would lose thousands of Tory votes.

"Let us make it clear that Warrington supports a moratorium on fracking and that we will not be bribed or subject to a process that Tories feel they are unable to pursue in the south of the country.

"We owe a duty of care to our voters and should not support unproven measures which could wreck their communities."

Energy firm IGas, which has attracted fracking protesters at Woolston Protection Camp, adjacent to the M6 junction 21, has responded to the decision of LCC to deny Cuadrilla planning consent to the Preston New Road site, on the Fylde coast.

Stephen Bowler, CEO of IGas, said: "This is obviously disappointing that, in spite of a recommendation from planning officers, legal personnel and other experts, councillors have refused the application.

"We are encouraged however that the planning officers accepted the principle of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas exploration and appraisal, and that all environmental and safety issues associated with this process were addressed.

"This is just one application and each application is decided upon its merits.

"We have a long history of onshore exploration in the UK and have successfully mitigated noise and traffic impacts at other onshore locations on both brownfield and greenfield sites.

"Shale gas has the potential to cut UK gas import dependency by 50 per cent as well as being important economically and as part of a decarbonisation strategy."

IGas holds a number of exploration licences across the north west and has operated a pilot coal bed methane production site in Warrington for several years.

The site is used to produce gas and electricity from three separate coal seams.